French Clowning
by The Devils Song
Summary: God damn it all! He wasn't supposed to stand up there in front of the class and take Arthur's breath away! He was meant to be, well . . . Alfred. Annoying, American Alfred. He wasn't meant to look beautiful and sincere and so damn perfect. AU


French Clowning

**Warning: **Yaoi, drama slang (explained in A/N), AU

* * *

"All right, class, settle down! I have exciting news!"

It took a few more moments before everyone stopped talking and only then it was because Mr. Rome said he had news. No one ever really took their drama teacher seriously, especially since half the people only took that elective because it was a bludge. Mr. Rome never seemed to mind their talking and often joined in, so when he actually tried to get them to quiet down, they usually listened.

"Now, I'm sure you've all heard of England's National Academy of Dramatic Arts, or ENADA for short, correct?" Nobody replied, but he continued talking anyway. "Well, they've invited the drama students of this school to their centre for a one day drama workshop tomorrow. Everybody make sure to be here straight after wellfare!"

The chatter started up again, most of it now focusing on the workshop. Arthur Kirkland, one of the few students who actually took the class seriously, could barely contain his excitement to his friend Kiku Honda. He'd always wanted to go to ENADA and now here was a chance to finally see what it was like.

Kiku looked at him with a small smile. "I wonder what style of drama we'll be learning? I hope it's Kabuki."

Arthur smiled back, about to reply when a loud, obnoxious, _American_ accent interrupted their conversation. "Of course it'll be action! And I'll be the hero!" Alfred F. Jones dropped down to sit in between them on the carpet. "You will be my damsel in distress, Artie." He grinned at the English boy, completely ignoring his furrowed (and _massive_) eyebrows and deep scowl.

A couple of girls giggled near them, glancing at Alfred. This only made Arthur's scowl deepen even more. He'd be lying if he said he didn't have a bit of a crush on the American, but it was mostly physical. With those sparkling blue eyes, bright blonde hair and beautiful smile, any straight man would have trouble denying his charms. Not that Arthur was straight, but that just made it easier for him to admit that the annoying boy was indeed good-looking.

His personality, though, needed serious work.

"I'll have you know, Jones, that I am in fact a _male _and therefore cannot be your damsel. Even if I were female, I'd still prefer to have nothing to do with you," Arthur pointed out.

Alfred just laughed. "You'll come around eventually, and when you do I promise to sweep you off your feet!" He winked one blue eye at him before jumping up and returning to his - also incredibly annoying - friends and leaving Arthur behind.

"That damn American," he grumbled to himself, completely missing the knowing glint in Kiku's eyes.

* * *

A day, four hours of a bus ride and three arguments with Alfred later, he was standing in front of the ENADA building with the rest of class, a big smile on his face. He was here! Excitement pooled in his stomach. Oh, how he hoped they'd be learning melodrama.

The class was led into the building and down a colourful hallway. On the walls were pictures of performances, mannequins of costumes students had designed and models of sets for their productions. Arthur couldn't have felt more at home.

Their guide took them into only a little bigger than the classrooms in their school. The floors were wooden and the all the walls a grey metal with patterns of holes in them to reduce echoing. To the left of the room were two rows of green chairs, to the right a long whiteboard. In the middle of the room stood a man looking like he was in his mid-twenties with long blonde hair and big blue eyes.

"_Bonjour_, students! I will be leading today's workshop. My name is Francis Bonnefoy, but just call me Francis."

_Oh great,_ thought Arthur. _French_.

"Now _mes chéris_, please take a seat over there." Everybody rushed to get seats in the front row and Arthur found himself sat right next to Alfred. He sighed. Well, even this couldn't ruin his day. _Or maybe it could_, he corrected himself when Alfred winked and slapped him gently on the back.

Francis began to speak again in that annoyingly French accent. "Okay, today we will be learning a style of clowning." Arthur held back a groan. Clowning? That was his least favourite, right next to slapstick! "Particularly French clowning, as it is the most difficult."

Arthur fought the urge to facepalm as he saw Alfred grinning at him pointedly.

"In this style of _clowneries_, the most important thing is to connect with the audience and to please them. You could spend a month preparing a routine, but if they don't like it, you drop it straight away and go back to what they do like." He clapped his hands for emphasis, still smiling.

"You'll often be put on the spot, so the connection is the most important part. Before we get into this, we'll start with a warm up activity. Everybody grab the person next to you and find a space in the room."

Alfred immediately grabbed the Brit's hand and dragged him happily over to a free space, ignoring his protests. Arthur shot a pleading look at Kiku across the room who pretended not to notice and stayed with Yao. Why did Alfred insist on being with him? A little flutter stirred in his heart, but he clamped it down straight away. The attraction was purely physical, he reminded himself.

"We will now play a game called 'I Got You A Present'. Is anybody familiar with it?" A few students, including Arthur, put their hands up.

"Ah, _très bien_!" Francis cheered. "So it isn't completely new to you all. In this game, I'll point to a pair. _Personne_ _Un_ must say, 'I got you a present' and make a shape of a present with their hands. Be as creative as possible! _Personne Deux_ must then say something along the lines of, 'Wow, it's a' and then what it is. Once again, creativity is key. Then, the first person must say what it is for. _Par exemple_, if somebody tells me I got them a baby bird, I would then say something like, '_Oui!_You're always complaining about the butterflies in your stomach, so I thought if you ate the bird alive it would eat the butterflies.' The other person would then have to do exactly what they said it was for."

Once he made sure everyone got the point, Francis picked a pair to try it out. He picked each pair randomly, so Arthur was a bit surprised when he and Alfred were picked to go sixth. Luckily, Alfred wasn't and turned to Arthur quickly.

"I got you a present," he said, a mischievous gleam in his eye. The American then got down on one knee and held hands out to Arthur in the shape of a small box.

_Day officially ruined_, he thought grimly.

It was so obvious what he was implying and there was no way to turn the present into anything else without blocking the offer. He was supposed to please the audience and so, knowing by their laughter what they wanted, he put on a happily surprised expression and exclaimed, "What a beautiful ring!" He then proceeded to tell himself the blush rising on his cheeks was all part of the act.

"Will you marry me?" The way those big blue eyes stared at him, it almost felt like a real proposal.

Arthur wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "Yes! Yes, of course!"

Alfred stood up and excitedly put the invisible ring on his finger before picking Arthur up and swinging him around. "Oh Arthur, you've made me the happiest man in the world!"

The class laughed at the act, Arthur blushing and giggling once again completely for the act. It had _absolutely nothing _to do with the fact that Alfred's strong arms were locked around his waist and he was aiming that gorgeous smile at him and he smelt like coffee-

_Oh God, I'm going to kill him for making me do this._

Their act was then over and they continued watching everyone else, Arthur still fighting the happy blush off his cheeks.

After the last pair, Francis clapped and began to speak again. "_Magnifique_! You all did a _superbe_ job! Now, let's get right into it, _oui_? Everybody back to you seats!"

Alfred once again dragged Arthur around to sit next to him. Arthur really didn't know whether to be happy or angry with the boy.

"Okay, I want you all to come up one by one. When you do, you'll go behind that whiteboard over there and then come out again as a clown. You can have any emotion, but show it through your face and minimal movement. Just stand there for a minute, make eye contact with _everyone _in the room and project the emotion through your eyes and face. Then, slowly walk forward and keep eye contact. Your clown will then spot a flower on the ground. Do whatever you want with the flower, but make sure you go through at least two emotion changes and keep eye contact the majority of the time. Convey your emotions through expression, not big actions."

Francis then began to call people up one by one. Eventually he pointed to Alfred (with a wink much too inappropriate considering his age and position), and the boy got up and walked behind the whiteboard. When he came out again, he had a shy smile and moved awkwardly. He stood at the front of the room and began to look at each individual person. When he finally looked at Arthur, the older boy found it hard to breathe.

His beautiful, usually happy eyes were so unguarded and full of so much emotion. Uncertainty, nerves and a little bit of . . . Hope? Arthur wasn't sure, but it was amazing all the same.

God damn it all! He wasn't supposed to stand up there in front of the class and take Arthur's breath away! He wasn't meant to look beautiful and sincere and so damn perfect. He was meant to be annoying and only mildly cute, not vulnerable and downright adorable and - screw it. He had to admit it now. The attraction was not purely physical.

He loved him. Arthur Kirkland was in love with Alfred Freaking Jones.

The moment that thought occurred to him, Arthur started breathing again and Alfred looked at the next person. The English boy could no longer take his eyes off of him. With this new view of him, how was he supposed to act? Surely not as he probably looked right now, full of admiration. He just couldn't help it.

Alfred began to walk forward slowly, until he stopped at the imaginary flower. A look of shock came onto his face, which he expressed to everyone before he picked up the flower. Hope then took over his features as he walked slowly forward, towards Arthur's seat in the front row.

_What is he doing, _Arthur wondered, still engrossed in his performance. He then found a hand shoved in his face as Alfred looked at him with that same goddamn adorable expression on his goddamn adorable face. Arthur pretended to take the flower and was left breathless once again at the smile that overcame Alfred's face. Alfred bowed in front of him and kissed his hand gently. Arthur didn't even bother to fight the blush this time.

He then backed away slowly, keeping his eyes locked on Arthur's. Was it an act or a hallucination . . . or was there love in those blue eyes? Arthur lost his breath once more. He was sure the same look was in his eyes at that very moment.

An eternity passed and finally Alfred had gone behind the whiteboard. He came back out with the biggest grin Arthur had ever seen him wear.

"Good, very good!" Francis gushed. "You two are a very cute couple." The class laughed and Arthur glared daggers at the French man. "Oh? Was I wrong? My apologies, then." With that proud smirk on his face, it was pretty hard to take him seriously.

Alfred sat down next to him once more, and Arthur didn't fight when he closed his larger hand around his.

_Yes, I think this is love._

* * *

A/N: Hmm. Should I make this a two shot? I was going to make it longer, but that just felt like the right place to leave off. The feelings are probably a bit rushed here, but I like it better that way. Young love is usually rushed. Besides, this whole fic is based on a drama workshop I actually did.

We did those two activities (and many more, but that would make the fic much too long and pointless) and I actually found that one of my friends who got up there took my breath away with their acting. Not in a romantic way, they were just brilliant. In 'I Got You A Present', I was given that one about the baby birds. Not the most pleasant thing I've ever acted out. One of my friends got the marriage proposal (and blocked it, which she got a few boos for).

ENADA is purely fictional, though I got it from NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts. It's in Australia.) where the workshop was held. Also, I apologise for the drama slang. I know some of you may not get it but I couldn't find a way around using them. Here's what they mean:

_Kabuki _- A form of traditional Japanese drama with highly stylized song, mime, and dance.

_Melodrama _- Big, over the top movements and words. Over reacting. You may recognise it from the term 'melodramatic'.

_Slapstick _- Comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events. (Example: The Three Stooges.)

_Blocking _- Rejecting an offer. The word 'no' does not exist in improvisation activities.

Any fellow drama geeks reading this? I'd like to hear if you have any funny improvisation stories to tell! Most actors do. Remember to review, munchkins!


End file.
